The present invention relates to meta tags and more specifically, to ownership, management, and availability of meta tags in a file or for an object.
Meta tags are often equated to a line of HTML coding that describes a webpage or links keywords to a webpage where the line of HTML coding does not change how the webpage looks. An exemplary line of tagging may read as follows: <meta name=“description” content=“A description of the page”/>. Most often, meta tags are not regularly viewable by a visitor to a website or other network resource over a network but can be seen when viewing source code as well as when using applications or applets designated to reveal the meta tags. When associated with a photograph, a meta tag may indicate the date the photograph was taken, who owns the copyright to the photograph, when the photograph was taken, and a relative rating of the photograph by the photographer, e.g., 3 stars out of five.
Meta tags may be placed on objects in social networking platforms. For example, a photograph may be tagged by a poster/participant in the social networking platform and then be tagged with additional information by a second participant. Each of these tags may then be viewed by both participants as well as by others. Flickr™ as an example, lets a user post a tag on shared object, but then only the object owner can remove a tag. Another example, Pinterest™, allows an object to be shared, but once shared, the “tag” (pin) association is exclusively for the tagger (pinner) to own. That is, the initial poster couldn't remove the Pinterest™ pin from his search results directed to the object when searching for the object at all.
In each of these examples there is no concept of a personally owned tag with the tags belonging to the objects and objects to owners. In other words, selective personalization and management of meta tags or meta data as described below is not disclosed or suggested by Flickr™ and Pinterest™ and other social networking platforms.